The present invention relates to a passenger protecting apparatus for protecting a passenger sitting on the seat of the vehicle such as an automotive vehicle in the event of a collision.
Various types of air bag apparatuses, air belt apparatuses, or air curtain apparatuses have been developed as systems to protect passengers in the automotive vehicle in the event of a collision.
An apparatus has been proposed for raising the front portion of the seat cushion upon collision of the vehicle in order to prevent a submarine phenomenon where the passenger is squeezed out through the lap belt downwardly in case of a frontal crash even when the passenger is wearing the seat belt. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-309967, a vehicle seat in which the front end of the seat cushion is adapted to be raised by a cartridge actuator is disclosed, and in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-217818, a vehicle seat in which the front end of the seat cushion is raised by an air bag is disclosed.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a passenger protecting apparatus adapted to generate a driving force by an air belt.
The passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention comprises a seat having a seat cushion and a seat back, and means for hardening the front portion of said seat cushion in the event of emergency of the vehicle, wherein said means is an air belt which decreases in length when inflated.
In the passenger protecting apparatus, the air belt is preferably disposed under the seat cushion and is prevented from moving downward and forward when inflated, and there may be provided a back-up member for preventing said air belt from moving downward under the air belt.
In the passenger protecting apparatus in this arrangement, the seat cushion is raised by the inflation of the air belt, or is hardened by applying a pressure from below to the portion being in contact with the air belt in case of emergency such as a collision of the vehicle or the like so as to prevent a submarine phenomenon of the passenger.
When a back-up member is disposed under the air belt, a projection extending upward for positioning the air belt may be provided on the back-up member. In this case, the projection deforms when a pressure in excess of a prescribed value is applied to said projection by the air belt so that the forward movement of the air belt is permitted.
In this arrangement, it is assured that the front portion of the seat cushion is pushed up or hardened by the air belt in case of emergency of the vehicle, and when the passenger bumped against the front portion of the seat cushion with an excess of an impactive force, the base plate moves forward of the seat cushion while deforming the projection in accordance with the movement of the passenger and absorbs the impactive force.
In this passenger protecting apparatus, the air belt may be extended in the direction of the width of said seat cushion and connected to the structural member of said seat cushion at both ends thereof.
In this passenger protecting apparatus, the air belt is preferably provided with a shock-absorbing mechanism.
In this case, the shock-absorbing mechanism may be a gas outlet for preventing the internal pressure of the air belt from increasing excessively by discharging the gas from the air belt when the air belt is inflated (hereinafter such a gas outlet may be referred to as xe2x80x9cvent holexe2x80x9d), or may be a tear seam formed in such a manner that a part of the air belt is seamed with a thread for reducing the volume of the air belt in the inflated state and the thread is broken and the seamed portion is torn when the internal pressure of the air belt reaches or exceeds a prescribed pressure in order to allow the air belt to increase in volume and to lower the internal pressure therein. When the gas outlet is used as a shock-absorbing mechanism, it is also possible to construct in such a manner that valve means that opens when the gas pressure reaches or exceeds the prescribed value is provided to prevent the gas from escaping when the air belt is being inflated.
The shock-absorbing mechanism comprises a gas outlet provided on the air belt, and a tear seam formed by seaming a part of said air belt and closing said gas outlet, wherein the tear seam is broken so that said air belt increase in volume and simultaneously said gas outlet is opened to allow the gas to escape when the internal pressure of the air belt reaches or exceeds a prescribed value.
In this arrangement, when the internal pressure of the inflated air belt is not more than the prescribed value, a part of the air belt is being seamed to form a tear seam and the vent hole is closed. When the internal pressure of the air belt reaches or exceeds a prescribed value, since the tear seam is broken to allow the air belt to increase in volume and simultaneously to allow the vent hole to open, the internal pressure of the air belt decreases with the increase of the volume of the air belt, and a gas is escaped through a vent hole to prevent the internal pressure of the air belt from excessively increasing.
The shock-absorbing mechanism may be means to limit deployment of the air belt when the internal pressure of the air belt is not more than the prescribed value, and release the limitation and allow the air belt to increase in volume and decrease in internal pressure accordingly when the internal pressure of the air belt reaches or exceeds the prescribed value.
In the passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention provided with such a shock-absorbing mechanism, when the passenger bumped against the front portion of the seat cushion with a large impactive force when the air belt inflated and thus the front portion of the seat cushion is raised or hardened, the air belt receives the passenger via said seat cushion. When the air belt is pressurized by the impactive force and thus the internal pressure of the air belt reaches or exceeds a prescribed value, the shock-absorbing mechanism described above is actuated to decrease the internal pressure of the air belt or to prevent an excessive increase of the internal pressure of the air belt, thereby absorbing the impactive force.
The passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention may further comprise a seat belt apparatus for restraining the passenger sitting on the seat and a lowering mechanism for lowering at least one of the buckle and the lap anchor of said seat belt apparatus in case of emergency of the vehicle, wherein said lowering mechanism includes an air belt that decreased in length by inflation thereof as a driving power source for lowering movement.
In the passenger protecting apparatus described above, a shrinking force of the air belt can apply a pretension to the seat belt.
In the passenger protecting apparatus including the seat belt apparatus, the end of the air belt and at least one of said buckle and the lap anchor are preferably connected via a linkage. As an alternative to this linkage, it is also possible that the end of the air belt and at least one of the buckle and the lap anchor are connected via a rack-and-pinion mechanism, or that the end of the air belt and at least one of said buckle and the lap anchor are connected via a linear body.
In the air belt including the seat belt apparatus in which the end of the air belt and at least one of the buckle and the lap anchor are connected, the shrinking force of the air belt is transmitted to the buckle or the lap anchor by said linkage, the rack-and-pinion, or the linear body, and thus the buckle or the lap anchor is pulled down, thereby applying a pretension to the seat belt.
When the end of the air belt and at least one of the buckle and the lap anchor are connected via a linear body, the linear body may be a flexible elongated member such as a wire or a rope, or webbing or mesh webbing having one end elongated.
The linear body may be guided by a guide column or the like, or by a member such as a pulley or a roller. It may also be guided by a member having slipping property such as a slip anchor.
In this passenger protecting apparatus, means for transmitting a shrinking force of the air belt to the buckle and the anchor may comprises a first linear body which is connected at one end to one end of the air belt and the other end to a rotatable body, and a second linear body having one end connected to said buckle or the lap anchor and the other end being windable on said rotatable body.
When the air belt and the buckle or the lap anchor are connected in this arrangement, a rotatable body comprising a pair of rollers coaxially connected so as to rotate integrally is used, the other end of the first linear body connected at one end to the air belt is wound onto one of the rollers of a rotatable body, and the other end of the second linear body connected at one end to the buckle or the lap anchor is windably connected to the other roller of the rotatable body, so that when the air belt is inflated and decreases in length, one end of said first linear body is pulled by the shrinking force of the air belt, and the other end of the first linear body wound on said one of the rollers of a rotatable body is unwound from the roller, along with which said roller, in other words, the rotatable body rotates and said other end of the second linear body is wound on the other roller, whereby the buckle or the lap anchor connected to one end of the second linear body is pulled down, thereby applying a pretension to the seat belt.
In this arrangement as well, the first linear body and the second linear body maybe flexible elongated members such as wire or rope, and may be webbing or mesh webbing having one end elongated.
This passenger protection apparatus preferably comprises raising means for raising the front portion of the seat cushion in case of emergency of the vehicle, and the power source of said raising means is an air belt sheared with the power source for said lowering means. Preferably, a force from the air belt is transmitted to the driven member via a one-way clutch.
The passenger protecting apparatus including the seat belt apparatus as described above may further comprise a power transmission mechanism in which the air belt and the buckle or the anchor are connected to transmit a power to the buckle or the anchor preferably comprises a shock-absorbing mechanism which allows the upward movement of the buckle or the lap anchor while applying a drag to said buckle or said lap anchor when an upward force not less than the prescribed value is applied to said buckle or said lap anchor lowered by the lowering mechanism.
In this case, the shock-absorbing mechanism may be a gas outlet for preventing the internal pressure from increasing excessively by supplying a gas from the air belt when the air belt is inflated, or may be a tear seam constructed in such a manner that the air belt is partly seamed by a thread for reducing the volume of the air belt in the inflated state, and the thread is broken and seamed portion is torn when he internal pressure of the air belt reaches or exceeds a prescribed pressure in order to allow the air belt to increase in volume and to lower the internal pressure therein. When the gas outlet is used as a shock-absorbing mechanism, it is also possible to construct in such a manner that valve means that opens when the gas pressure reaches or exceeds the prescribed value is provided to prevent the gas from escaping when the air belt is being inflated.
The shock-absorbing mechanism comprises a gas outlet provided on the air belt, and a tear seam formed by seaming a part of said air belt and closing said gas outlet, wherein the tear seam is broken so that said air belt increase in volume and simultaneously said gas outlet is opened to allow the gas to escape when the internal pressure of the air belt reaches or exceeds a prescribed value.
In this arrangement, when the internal pressure of the inflated air belt is not more than the prescribed value, a part of the air belt is being seamed to form a tear seam and the vent hole is closed. When the internal pressure of the air belt reaches or exceeds a prescribed value, since the tear seam is torn to allow the air belt to increase in volume and simultaneously the vent hole is opened, the internal pressure of the air belt decreases with the increase of the volume of the air belt, and a gas is escaped through a vent hole to prevent the internal pressure of the air belt from excessively increasing.
The shock-absorbing mechanism may be means to limit deployment of the air belt when the internal pressure of the air belt is mot more than the prescribed value, and release the limitation and allow the air belt to increase in volume and decrease in internal pressure accordingly when the internal pressure of the air belt reaches or exceeds the prescribed value.
The passenger protecting apparatus including the seat belt apparatus may further comprise any one of the shock-absorbing mechanisms described above and a power transmission mechanism for connecting the air belt and the buckle or the lap anchor to transmit the power, when the passenger bumped against the seat belt to which a pretension is applied in advance by the buckle or the lap anchor being pulled down by the air belt shortened as a result of inflation thereof with a large kinetic energy, a large impactive force is applied to the buckle or the lap anchor in the pulling-up direction. The impactive force thus applied is transmitted to the air belt via said power transmission mechanism connecting the buckle or the lap anchor and the air belt, elongates the air belt longitudinally and simultaneously contracts the same circumferentially, thereby increasing the internal pressure of the air belt abruptly. In this case, when the internal pressure of the air belt reaches or exceeds a prescribed value, the shock-absorbing mechanism described above actuates to decrease the internal pressure or the air belt or to prevent an excessive increase of the internal pressure thereof so as to allow longitudinal elongation of the air belt with the suitable internal pressure of the air belt maintained.
Accordingly, the buckle or the lap anchor connected to the air belt can be moved in the pulling-up direction by the impactive force applied by the passenger with a suitable drag applied by the internal pressure of the air belt, thereby absorbing an impactive force applied by the passenger and an excessive kinetic energy of the passenger to protect the passenger.
The passenger protecting apparatus having a power transmission mechanism as described above preferably comprises an shock-absorbing mechanism that allows the buckle or the lap anchor to move upwardly while applying a drag to said buckle or the lap anchor when a upward force not less than a prescribed value is applied to the power transmission mechanism for transmitting a power from the air belt to said buckle or the lap anchor.
In this case, as an shock-absorbing mechanism, when the power transmission mechanism comprises, for example, a linear body that connects the air belt and the buckle or the lap anchor so that the power of the air belt is transmitted to the buckle or the lap anchor via the linear body. The power transmission mechanism may comprise a guiding member for guiding a linear body so as to allow the buckle or the lap anchor to move upward while applying a suitable drag by deformation or retraction of the guiding member, and when webbing is used as a linear body, it is also possible to provide a seamed portion by seaming a part of said webbing with another part thereof with a thread to shorten the length thereof, so that an impact is absorbed by increasing the length of the webbing by tearing the seamed portion to allow the upward movement of the buckle or the lap anchor.
In this passenger protecting apparatus, when the power transmission mechanism is constructed in such a manner that the power of the air belt is transmitted to the buckle or the lap anchor via the rotatable body as shown in FIG. 20, the shock-absorbing mechanism may be provided with a torsion bar as an axis of rotation of the rotatable body, so that an impact is absorbed by alleviating winding of the second linear body connected to said buckle or the lamp anchor by torsion of the torsion bar to allow the buckle or the lap anchor to move upward while applying a suitable drag thereto.
The shock-absorbing mechanism may comprise, as a power transmission mechanism, a first linear body connected to the air belt, a second linear body connected to said buckle or lap anchor, and a connecting member for connecting said first linear body and the second linear body, wherein deformation of said connecting member allows the buckle or the lap anchor to move upward while applying a suitable drag so as to absorb the impact, and when the power transmission mechanism is formed of a linear body provided between the buckle or the lap anchor and the air belt, there may be provided a connecting member connecting said linear body to said buckle or the lap anchor or the air belt at one end of the linear body, so that deformation of the connecting member allows the buckle or the lap anchor to move upward while applying a suitable drag, thereby absorbing the impact.
In the passenger protecting apparatus having such an shock-absorbing mechanism, the power transmission mechanism comprises a wire connected to said shock-absorbing mechanism at one end and engaged with said buckle or the lap anchor or the air belt at a midpoint for transmitting a power.
In the passenger protecting apparatus comprising said shock-absorbing mechanism, when the passenger bumped with a large impactive force against the seat belt applied with a pretension by the buckle or the lap anchor being pulled down, the impactive force is absorbed by said shock-absorbing mechanism and thus the passenger is protected.
In the passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention, the air belt is preferably extending diagonally along the fore-and-aft direction of the seat cushion.
In this case, the air belt may be oriented so that one end of the air belt is located at the front portion of one side of the seat cushion and the other end is located at the rear portion of the other side of the seat cushion for example, or the first and the second air belts are disposed in such a manner that one end of the respective first and second air belts are located at the midway of the front side of the seat cushion extending between the left and the right, the other end of the first air belt is located on the left side at the rear, and the other end of the second air belt is located on the right side at the rear of the seat cushion.
The end of the air belt disposed at the rear side of the seat cushion may be connected directly with at least one of the buckle and the lap anchor of said seat belt apparatus. In this arrangement, when the air belt is inflated and decreased in length, the end of the air belt connected to the buckle or the lap anchor is pulled toward said end of the air belt disposed on the front portion of the seat cushion, and the buckle or the lap anchor is directly pulled down by its shrinking force, thereby applying a pretension to the seat belt and minimizing the loss of transmission occurred when the shrinking force of the air belt is transmitted as a pulling down force of the buckle or the lap anchor.
In this case as well, there is preferably provided a raising means for raising the front portion of the seat cushion in case of emergency of the vehicle, and a power source is an air belt shared with the said lowering means. A force from the air belt is preferably transmitted to the driven member via a one-way clutch.
In an alternative embodiment, the passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention is a passenger protecting apparatus comprising a seat including a seat cushion and a seat back, and a hardening means for hardening the front portion of said seat cushion in case of emergency of the vehicle, wherein said hardening means is a bag body containing a magnetic fluid, and includes an energizing means for hardening said magnetic fluid by passing a current in said magnetic fluid.
In the passenger protecting means, the energizing means may pass a current in the magnetic fluid contained in said bag body located in the front portion of the seat in case of emergency such as a collision of the vehicle to harden the magnetic fluid. Accordingly, the front portion of the seat cushion is hardened, thereby preventing a submarine phenomenon of the passenger. When no current is passing through the magnetic fluid, the magnetic fluid freely flows in said bag body as a matter of course so that the passenger can sit on the seat without having a feeling of discomfort in the normal state other than the emergency state.
In the passenger protecting apparatus, the bag body is preferably disposed in said seat cushion and is prevented from moving downward, there may be provided a back-up member for preventing the downward movement of the bag body under the bag body.
When the back-up member is disposed under the bag body, a projection extending upward for positioning the bag body may be provided on the back-up member. In this case, the projection deforms when a pressure in excess of a prescribed value is applied to said projection by the bag body so that the forward movement of the bag body is permitted.
In this arrangement, in case of emergency of the vehicle, it is assured that the magnetic fluid contained in the bag body is hardened in the front portion of the seat cushion so that a submarine phenomenon of the passenger is prevented, and when the passenger bumped against the front portion of the seat cushion with an excess of impactive force, the bag body moves forward of the seat cushion while deforming the projection in accordance with the movement of the passenger and absorbs the impactive force.
In the passenger protecting apparatus, said bag body may be extended in the direction of the width of said seat cushion and connected to the structural member of said seat cushion at both ends thereof.
In another alternative embodiment, the passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention comprises a seat including a seat cushion and a seat back, and means for forming a sleeve wall on the side of said seat cushion in case of emergency of the vehicle, wherein said means comprises an air belt disposed so as to connect said seat cushion and the seat back, and said air belt decreases in length when the air belt is inflated, whereby said air belt is routed between the seat cushion and the seat back so as to form said sleeve wall.
In this case, said air belt may be disposed between the front end of the plate and the seat back so that the air belt forms a sleeve wall along the side of the seat when said air belt is inflated.
Said means is preferably disposed on the side portion of the seat cushion and on the side portion of the seat back, and provided with an upwardly rotatable plate on its front side, so that a rotating torque is applied to said plate by the length-reducing force of said air belt.
It is also possible to construct in such a manner that at least one of the members of the buckle and the lap anchor of the seat belt and said plate is interlocked so that at least one of said buckle and said lap anchor moves downwardly when said plate is rotated with the front end thereof moved upward.
In a further alternative embodiment, the passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention comprises an air belt, wherein said air belt is disposed on the lower portion of the back side of the seat so that it functions as a bag for protecting the lower half of the passenger""s body including the knees sitting on the seat located in the rear of said seat.
In this case, it is also possible to construct in such a manner that at least one of the members of the buckle and the lap anchor of the seat belt and said air belt are interlocked, so that one of the members of said buckle and lap anchor moves downward when said air belt is inflated and the length thereof is reduced. In this case, the plate and said member are preferably interlocked via the one-way clutch so that the upward movement of said member is prevented by said one-way clutch.
In yet another alternative embodiment, the passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention comprises a seat having a seat cushion, seat back and a headrest, and means for moving said headrest frontward and diagonally upward in case of emergency of the vehicle, wherein said means comprises an air belt that is shortened when inflated as a power source for moving the headrest.
In the passenger protecting apparatus, the headrest supports the head of the passenger when the vehicle is bumped from the rear, so that an injury such as whiplash can be prevented.
In this case, the air belt is preferably disposed on the upper portion of the seat cushion so that the air belt is inflated so that the distance between the seat cushion and the passenger is reduced.
The passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention comprises an air belt for protecting the passenger sitting on the rear seat is routed between the left and right B pillar of the vehicle.
According to the passenger protecting apparatus as described above, the air belt can apply a pretension to the seat belt and prevents the passenger or the baggage on the rear seat from jumping forward when inflated.
In this case, the passenger protecting apparatus comprises a seat belt for protecting the passenger sitting on the seat, and said air belt can be provided so as to tow the shoulder anchor of said seat belt apparatus.
The passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention may comprises a metal plate that encloses said air belt when said air belt is not inflated, and expands as said air belt expands and contracts and deforms plastically when the external pressure is applied.
In the passenger protecting apparatus, a submarine phenomenon is prevented and the impact applied to the passenger is absorbed by plastic contraction and deformation of the expanded and deformed metal plate.
The passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention comprises a one-way clutch.
In this passenger protecting apparatus, decrease of tractive force of the air belt with decreasing of the expansive force thereof may be supplemented.
The passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention comprises a shock absorbing means elongating so that the upper limit of the tensile strength is maintained constant.
According to the passenger protecting apparatus as described above, the load applied to the passenger may be maintained constant.
In the passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention, a gas exhaust port of the inflator is preferably inserted into the air belt from one end thereof, and a flange member is preferably provided on the rear end of the inflator projecting from the air belt, and fixed on the side frame of the seat. In this arrangement, there is preferably provided a gas guide member for changing the direction of gas injected from the inflator into the direction longitudinally of the air belt on the tip side of the inflator.
According to the passenger protecting apparatus in this arrangement, since one end of the air belt is stable fixed to the side panel of the seat, and the other end of the air belt is positively attracted toward said one end when the length of the air belt is reduced upon inflation of the air belt, it is suitable as a power source for the lowering means for lowering the buckle and the lap anchor of said seat belt apparatus.
In this case, the other side of the air belt may be fixed on the other side frame.
In the passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention, the inflator may be fixed on the side frame of the seat and a tubular gas duct is provided so that a gas from said inflator to one end of the air belt, and a flange member is preferably provided on said gas duct and said flange member is fixed to the side frame of the seat.
In this arrangement, one end of the air belt is stably fixed to the side panel of the seat.
In the passenger protecting apparatus of the present invention, when the air belt used is wide in width, the air belt may be folded into a narrower width and stored in mesh webbing.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only, and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.